Hey all,
I have been searching for a mini-ITX case with space for some 3.5" drives and 1-2 120mm fans for my home server. I have not been able to find a case that satisfies me (the MI-008 is tempting, but it does not seem like it would be great for airflow...

I was thinking I might build a home-made case out of MDF and paint the exterior. Can anyone see any potential problems with this plan (besides the work involved)? Are there any grounding issues (IE do I need to bond all of the equipment)? Obviously I will have to depend on air cooling rather than direct heat transfer for the HDDs.

For the design: I was thinking I would place each drive on a solid shelf, and include space for a 9.6"x9.6" uATX + low profile HSF (assuming picoPSU or equivalent) for future hardware changes. Space for 5 HDD for potential RAID5 + boot drive action. Maybe have a padded shelf for each drive to sit on with no hard mounting?
Have one intake fan blowing on the HDDs, and one exhaust out the top.
Getting the backplate to fit will be a goal, and maybe allowing for a few PCI cards, although I do not plan on needing them. I may end up cheating and using the metal from the back of a mini tower...

You can take a look to:

Silverstone SG03
Antec NSK1380
Lian LI-V351

Well, for the MI-008 as you can see on my thread, it has holes in the two sides of the case, so you can do as cman00 did on his/her MI-008 to improve the airflow. Maybe I'll do that when everything will be mounted.

Also, if you don't find any mATX case, keep in mind that it would be a good idea to have positive air pressure/airflow

Hope to have been helpfull

If i needed that much space for HDDs in a mATX style case, I would probably design a desktop style case with the shell being 1/2 inch MDF. Set the 4 HDDs on a soft, non-static form sheet on the bottom of the shell. Dado in a slot just over them to install a 1/4 inch piece of MDF horizontally to set the motherboard/mounts on. Leave enough room between the motherboard and the top of the shell to install a Ninja Mini or Scythe Big Shuriken and at least a half-height PCI card. You could mount two fans on the front to blow across both the HDD cavity and the motherboard cavity.

That might be tough to picture. In my head it looks like an Antec 1480/2480 with a 2 inch cavity under the mobo tray to lay 4 HDDs in a single layer.

My 2 cents.

While it isn't an mITX case, there is an article on building a wooden case.

There have been a fair few numbers of articles and threads of wooden cases on internet, other than airflow and the time to actually build it, it's all pretty straight forward.

There are some good tips in this article, and while wood in his case was somewhat resonating, MDF is stiffer and less prone to this.

The Lian Li is very pretty. Probably a little more than I want to spend and a little bigger than I'd like, though :)
That is a nice mod by cman00. The netting actually looks really good. My big problem with the MI-008 are the holes on the side of the case seem like they would block a lot of air flow. Such a mod would fix that, though :D


This actually sounds great. The one thing I worry about with mounting the mobo flat is the potential wear on sleeve bearing fans. HDDs on the bottom is a nice idea though. I would like to build them slots to sit in, and make them easily accessible, but this shouldn't be too hard.
As for the MDF, I was thinking of making some of the shell even thinner than 1/2" and building it around a 3/4" x 3/4" frame. Probably make the bottom a nice heavy piece, though.

I'm also considering how I am going to cut/shape the MDF. I live in an apartment and only have a drill, a dremel, and a circular saw. I may buy a router for making the edges. No room for a table, though :D Seems do-able if I am sticking to straight cuts. Not sure how I want to fasten it, but if I get the router maybe I'll consider some tongue and groove + glue action. Maybe I need a reciprocating saw for cutting fan holes? Or do you think I can get by with a cutting bit on the equipment I have?

Oh yeah, and I am a big fan of positive pressure + filtering. Depending on noise levels I may end up running the intake fan at 7V and the exhaust at 5V for a little bit of this, or (if I got with something similar to meato's suggestion) I may only need an intake.

Nails and liberal use of wood glue holds MDF quite well, even butt joints. Circular saw with a fence clamped to the piece does fine for making dados that won't be seen on the exterior of the finished product. An inexpensive hole-saw kit for your drill motor would suffice for making fan cut-outs. Don't neglect a good coping saw and some chisels. The old stand-byes still get the job done.

I popped by Home Depot today to see what sizes MDF I could buy. Seems like 1/2" x 12" x 48" MDF shelving boards are my best bet.

Now what about mounting for the mobo? I was thinking about using some little dowels as standoffs, and use some little little wood screws. And for fans I was thinking I would route a thin area of MDF and use the standard screws. Does this sound reasonable?

I did a few preliminary sketches to help me decide what I want to do. I am tempted to make a smaller case for just 2 HDD and my mini-ITX board. For future 5 hdd + uATX operation I might just build another case having learned from this experience. Hopefully in the near future I will have a place to put a work bench too, so I could get fancier.

design pic 1
design pic 2

Basically the 5 HDD setup would be 17"x11"x9", and the smaller 2 HDD setup would be 10"x10"x6".

Please forgive the terrible image quality. I pasted into mspaint to make the .gif :D

Edit: didn't realize there was a rule about image size. Removed large images and linked to the files instead.

Which program have you used for creating the images? The are good schemathics

About the first image, I'll try to put the fans a little bit more lower in order to have more airflow for the x4HDDs.

Also you might consider this design instead of the one you have done:



this way, you can suspend your HDDs (vertical way) or attach them with rails to the case, for example. Also by giving 1/2 - 2/3 the space of an HDD between each of them, there may be enough airflow, don't you think so?

Another possibility would this one:



What do you think?

Imho, if you are not going to put any other card on the PCI-E /PCI of your mini-ITX motherboard (have you it already?), you can always put a SATA card controller in order to put more HDDs instead of buying m-ATX board.

Hope to have benn usefull

I drew them in an old copy of AutoCAD. I used to draft for an engineer and I had a copy for working at home if I was sick. Everything is to scale and all.

I thought about mounting the HDDs in a stack like the standard tower setup, but since I am using wood there is no advantage (thermally) to hard mounting, and a big disadvantage (noisiness). I could have them rest on shelves per my first post, but I think the idea of having them all on a plane with very simple airflow over them sounds good.

As for the fans, I do want to dissipate any "heat blanket" forming on the drives, but don't want to create unnecessary turbulence by pushing air straight into the drives. Not sure exactly how I'm going to line them up, yet, and I may shape the bottom of the mobo "shelf".

Thanks for the drawings, though! I may still go with something similar to your first drawing, but with the drives next to the motherboard instead of in front of it. I may even turn them sideways, although I'm not sure about soft mounting in this position.

@andymcca - don't you have any small DIY shops in the area ?

I was toying with the idea of an MDF case for a while - we have a small DIY shop where they will cut anything to size for you...panels etc. and even rout grooves etc in the carcase.

An MDF carcase will need a frame and also needs to be sealed on both sides and all edges to avoid warping due to moisture ingress, a clear varnish was suggested to me - and paint the exterior afterwards.

I will look into this. I'm not really sure what to google, though! There is some value in cutting everything myself, I suppose.

Thanks for this information. I planned on sealing/painting most surfaces, but I had not really thought about damage from humidity.

Stumbled across this guide to mirror-finish MDF painting, which I thought was interesting.
Don't know if I have the time for all that hand sanding, though!

Yes, apply a sanding sealer after assembly. You won't need to sand and re-apply on the inside, unless you just want to. As for a frame, with this small a project, its unnecessary. Properly glued and joined, MDF is stout stuff, heavy too.

MDF is going to resonate too, though less than my pine box. Isolation mounts for all fans and HDD are pretty much mandatory if sound is a consideration.

As for grounding, I'd recommend a dedicated grounding line from the PSU chassis to the motherboard at least. I'm honestly not sure if the ground lines in the power cabling are tied to the earth ground in the PSU, or to what extent those lines are tied to the chassis in HDD and optical drives and such. Haven't fried anything in my box yet, and I don't have additional ground lines to the drives, just the motherboard.

Boring update:
I bought a book on box making, and am thinking I will get some a palm router, chisels, and pre-thicknessed/squared/planed lumber from a woodworking shop near my apartment (Rockler).

I'm still working on the overall design, but I'm thinking I may mount the D945GSEJT upside down on the lid, mount the fan horizontally blowing up on it in the middle, and sit the HDDs on foam at the bottom. The fan will be built into a divider separating the case into top and bottom chambers.

I realized that I probably don't have to be too worried about wood's resonance with foam mounted hdds and a single fan which I will decouple. I'll probably line some interior edges with foam so I don't get a chamber effect.

The D945GSEJT has on-board regulation for the sub-12V lines. It occurred to me that the line actually has a 2-wire connection to a 12V wall wart, which in tern is only using the hot+neutral lines from the socket. So basically I don't have a source for grounding unless I do something rather complicated.

If I build a case with a full ATX PSU I will probably do as you mentioned and bond between the PSU chassis and any parts with exposed metal. Probably some #18 AWG Cu soldered to a few screws or something.

See, that's what I get for not reading most of the thread.

It wouldn't be terribly complicated to add a grounding line - just run your 18 gauge line to the wall socket, use a banana plug to stick it into the ground. It probably isn't necessary, though I suppose you're running some degree of risk of damaging something with a static discharge.

OK, So I think I have a design! I'm going to buy pre-cut/planed/sized/joined lumber, glue, several chisels + mallet, and a palm router with a generic set of bits.

I've decided to take it easy for my first box (no dovetails, etc), but to try my hand at carving a little something on the lid. Below are some images from Google's SketchUp, which seems much nicer than my AutoCAD 2005 for 3D + textures :) The images were made before minor adjustments for the size of lumber available.

Assembled:
design image 3
Top opened:
design image 4
Side opened (requires top to be removed):
design image 5

Any comments/suggestions?

Edit:
PS I'm going to use dados for the lid, removable side, middle divider, and bottom, and rabits for the corners. The three sides + bottom will be glued. The final dimensions are approximately 9"x9"x6" (WxDxH)

Edit: didn't realize there was a rule about image size. Removed large images and linked to the files instead.

2 quick comments about wooden cases in general:

a) There is an issue with wooden cases, they do not shield against electromagnetic interference, a.k.a. EMI. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromag ... terference ) Now, I've run PCs without a case around them for years, and never had any issues with the PCs crashing or generating problems for other electronic appliances. But Your Mileage Might Vary...

b) If I made a DYI PC case, I'd change the whole layout of the PC radically. I would orient motherboard and HDDs vertically, so that hot air can naturally escape upwards. Think about a 2U rack server; and imagine looking at it from the side. Then rotate it 90 degrees by the nose, so that what was the rear is now directly above what was the front. And then leave what is now the top of the case open, so that air can escape (I do not need to worry about dust).

Basically, I'd try to get the benefits of a 'flatpack' (takes up less space), and have a heat chimney inside the case for natural cooling. Natural convection could be aided by a fan at the top or bottom of the chimney.

I have a clothing closet near the middle of my apartment where this contraption could fit perfectly. Bolted up on the inner wall of the closet, along one side...

About the design above: I think it's pretty smart. It will require the fan to run, otherwise there will be a build-up of heat below the motherboard, a pocket of hot still air would form there. But with the fan on, it should work very well. Basicallly this design could be built in an old shoe-box or similar cardbox; with simple cutouts in the sides for air. That would make for a great near-silent NAS server on the cheap!

There are two new ITX cases that should be available in the next month or so:
Lian Li PC-Q08
Sugo SG07

I think they are what you really want. The Lian Li PC-Q08 in particular has room for the hard drives and very robust air circulation.

Interesting. With solar flares in the rise, I wonder... Maybe I'll line it with a little aluminum foil for good measure :)
I kept coming back to this, both for mobo convective cooling and sleeve bearing operation, but I could not think of a great way to switch up the HDDs while keeping the foam mounting scheme I'd like. The single flat surface providing a single plane for airflow over the drives was why I went with the version shown in the sketches. You are right, though, I will need some sort of alarm for if the fan goes out.
A shoe-box version is worth making even after I finish the wooden one :) Now I just need some shoes!
Yeah, I actually kept looking at that as my top choice for OTS cases. It would have been a lot cheaper, considering how much I've spent on tools, but I need a new hobby anyway :D

Is foam on the under-side of the HDD attractive for a reason I don't know of..? I thought that soft-mounting the HDDs with thick rubber bands (O-rings) would be fine. Suspended in O-rings the HDD could have airflow from all sides, which I would think attractive.

Here is one idea: 2 bolts (not wood screws, bolts through the MDF plate) on all 4 sides of the HDD, in a appropriate distance from the HDD. 2 O-rings horizontally and 2 vertically to hold the HDD in place, suspended from the bolts, a little bit away from the base plate.

Another idea: Wood frame, about 2 x 2 or 3 x 3 cm wood (or metal, if that's easier). Build it so that it follows the sides of the HDD with about 1 - 2 cm gap to the HDD. Use O-rings to suspend the HDD inside the frame. Screw 2 - 3 regular hooks into the base plate, and hang the wood frame from the hooks (using "eye screws" or hang the frame directly).

Do you see drawbacks to the above ideas? If you're worried about soft suspension of the HDDs increasing drive wear, then you could add mass to the drives (attach something heavy to the sides of the drives, or hard-mount drives together and then soft-mount the drive assembly). As I see it, lots of people on this forum soft-mount HDDs, and I haven't noticed any threads about abnormal drive failure rates.

A little update to my previous post: If you build a vertical case and you decide to use a fan, then I still think your idea about placing the fan in the center of the case is worth pursuing. That way the MDF plate can silence the fan as much as possible -- if you put the fan at the top or at the bottom as I originally wrote it will be noisier.

If you want to go really crazy, you could build an acoustic trap at each end, and line the inside of the case with absorbent (fx encapsulated gypsum board).

Nope! I just figured this would require a little less space and less thought, given the tensions/clearances involved in suspending with elastic.
This is a good idea. I had been thinking about blocking the LoS of the HDDs to the vents with an extra bit of wood + foam, but decided against it because it would require a wider case.

I've bought wood & tools and assembled all of my panels. Now I just need to trim them, cut dados & rabbits, and glue+clamp. Ended up with Cherry for the walls and mahogany for the horizontal pieces. Hopefully it looks OK :D

lol. So today newegg's shell shocker is the APEX MI-008 for $30 US with free shipping. Probably would have gotten it had I not committed to this. Still tempted :)